3 1 2 THE XA TURE-STUD V RE VIE W [a . 9 _„ E c., 1906 



punishment came to him, he would naturally follow his habit and run 

 to her. 



It was about a week after this that my sister sat in the same din- 

 ing room later in the evening reading a book, while the dog, who is 

 as restless as dogs of that variety usually are, was running about 

 looking for something to play with. At last my sister said, without 

 looking up from her book and in an ordinary tone, "Teddy, if you 

 go down cellar and bring up a stick of wood, I'll play with you." 

 The dog stood beside her as she spoke and immediately darted out 

 into the kitchen, down the stairs into the cellar and soon reappeared 

 beside my sister with a stick of wood. This was not a trick he had 

 been taught. He has several times during the past winter carried 

 sticks of wood from the cellar to the kitchen, and at times has been 

 praised with such words as: "Nice dog to bring up wood from the 

 cellar." But this carrying the wood has always been done voluntar- 

 ily. Different members of the household when in the Cellar have 

 told him to carry up sticks, and he has never done so; sometimes a 

 stick has been put in his mouth in the cellar, but after taking it as 

 far as the stairs he would drop it and run up alone. He has been 

 told a few times to go to the cellar and bring up a stick, but no 

 attempt has been made to teach him to do so, and he has never done 

 it except in the instance noted above. Since the evening in ques- 

 tion the same remark has been made to him several times, and he has 

 not responded to it in any way. The explanation would seem to be 

 that he had learned to associate the words "cellar" and "stick" with 

 the objects themselves and probably the word "play" with the corres- 

 ponding activity, for my sister plays with him a great deal and on 

 such occasions frequently repeats the word "play," as "Now let us 

 play" or "Come, play with your ball." At the time in question the 

 play instinct acted as a strong stimulus, probably a "felt- need" from 

 within, such as I have referred to in my text-book, and hence the 

 special response. The whole act, then, involves no factors more com- 

 plicated than memory and the association of names with objects, a 

 faculty which dogs possess in considerable degree. 



This same terrier, for example, associates the word "ball" with the 

 corresponding object with which he plays. If someone is in the pan- 

 try and you say to him, "Go to the pantry and they will give ycu a piece 

 of dog-biscuit," he invariably goes for it, as he has doubtless learned 

 to associate the words "biscuit" and "pantry" with the objects them- 

 selves. In the same way if you say to him, "The grocer is coming 



